Compared with the conventional heat exchanger, the micro-channel heat exchanger of the present invention has advantages such as higher heat exchange efficiency and less usage of working medium. Since the industry at present places great emphasis and sets higher requirements on environmental protection and energy conservation, the micro-channel heat exchanger has been widely used in many industries owing to its own advantages, for instance, air-conditioning industry, automobile industry and chemical mechanical industry.
Due to particular design requirements or mounting space constraints, the micro-channel heat exchanger is usually not planar as a whole but designed with one or more bends so as to match the particular mounting space available. In the prior art, some of such bends are formed by bending the micro-channel heat exchanger along the length of a manifold. Fins inside the heat exchanger are crushed, deformed and distorted during the bending process, thereby influencing the heat exchange performance of the heat exchanger and making the appearance of the heat exchanger not aesthetically pleasing. Additionally, the portions of the heat exchanger outside of the bend will be torn where the manifolds are welded to flat tubes, which results in the decrease in the burst pressure of the heat exchanger. For solving the problem of deformation of the fins at bends, the EU patent application No. EP1962040A1 discloses a micro-channel heat exchanger, in which a U-shaped crush relief spacer is disposed at a bend for the purpose of avoiding the deformation of the fins around the bend.